Take a large dry crust of bread and rub the outside well over with one or two beads of garlic.

Place this crust of bread with the beans after they have been strained off, and toss them lightly about with the crust without breaking the beans.

Remove the crust and moisten the beans while hot with a lump of butter, add a brimming dessertspoonful of chopped blanched parsley; squeeze the juice of a lemon over the whole, and serve.

Instead of butter we can add, as they always do in Italy, two or three tablespoonfuls of pure olive oil.

Those who have conquered the unreasonable English prejudice against the use of oil will probably find this superior to butter.
If the beans are served in the form of a puree, it is always best to boil a few onions with them and rub the onions through the wire sieve with the beans, taking care that the quantity of onion is not so large that it destroys and overpowers the delicate and delicious flavour of the beans themselves.
Next, we would call attention to the importance of not throwing away the water in which the beans were boiled.